How I Became A Record-Breaking Ultra Runner Through Menopause – Susie Chan

Can menopause really change the way you run – and can running change the way you experience menopause?

🤝 Get your own personalised menopause support from Dr Naomi Potter and her team: https://www.menopausecare.co.uk/what-to-expect-ihih

Susie Chan didn't start running until she was 35. She was a smoking, self-described idle single mum with zero sporting background. Fast forward to now, and she's completed four Marathon des Sables – a gruelling six-day ultra across the Sahara Desert – run 100-mile races, and built a career as one of the UK's most beloved endurance runners and Peloton coaches.

But when perimenopause arrived, even she found her world shifted beneath her feet.

In this episode, Dr Naomi Potter is joined by Susie for an honest, funny and genuinely inspiring conversation about running later in life, what menopause actually does to your body when you're an athlete, and why it's never ever too late to start moving. 

Topics include:

• How Susie went from complete non-runner to desert ultramarathon competitor

• The perimenopause symptoms that hit hardest: joint pain, fatigue, anxiety and brain fog

• Why menopause symptoms can be so easy to miss or misattribute

• How HRT – including testosterone – has helped Susie continue competing

• Why women in midlife may actually be built for endurance sport

• How menopause affects fuelling, energy and performance during long-distance running

• The mental strength required to run ultras – and how perimenopause tests it• Advice for women who want to start running in their 40s, 50s, 60s and beyond

• Why you should never compare yourself to who you were before perimenopause

• Listener questions: is 66 too old to start running? And how do you keep going when perimenopause kills your motivation?

Follow Susie Chan below:

Susie's Instagram: @susie_chan_

Susie's TikTok: @susie.chan

Follow Dr Naomi Potter below:

Naomi's Instagram: @dr_naomipotter

Naomi's TikTok: @dr_naomipotter

0:00 Meet Susie Chan: From Museum Curator to Ultra Endurance Runner

1:32 How Running Started: From One Half Marathon to a New Life

8:00 Joining the Ultra Running Community

17:54 Becoming a Full-Time Running Coach at Peloton20:09 Why Women Excel at Long-Distance Running

26:08 Menopause and the Physical Toll of Running

33:01 Hormones, HRT and Performance: Oestrogen, Testosterone and Thyroid

39:48 Starting Running Later in Life: It's Never Too Late

44:58 Life After Menopause: What to Expect

51:00 Listener Q&A: Age, Knee Pain and Motivation

#menopause #perimenopause #running